COP 15 - Top UN scientist: What Climategate?

In harsh wording Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, defends British colleagues whose hacked emails have ignited debate over the credibility of mainstream climate science.

The hacking of emails from a leading British climate research centre is a “terrible and illegal act”, according to Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) advising the UN negotiations on climate.

“I think this is an illegal act. The only issue that has to be dealt with as far as this occurrence is concerned is to find out who is behind it,” Mr. Pachauri told a press conference according to AFP.

The emails were hacked from computers at the University of East Anglia. As some of the emails seem to reflect attempts by mainstream scientists to block publication of articles by dissenting researchers, the affair has been dubbed “Climategate” by the media. This is a highly misleading phrase according to Rajendra Pachauri:

“One can only surmise that those who have carried out this act have done it with the very clear intention as to influence the process in Copenhagen – but, barring a few isolated voices, people over here are totally convinced of the solidity of the findings of the IPCC report.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon concurs: “Nothing that has come out in the public as a result of the recent email hackings has cast doubt on the basic scientific message on climate change and that message is quite clear – that climate is changing much, much faster than we realized and we human beings are the primary cause,” Ban Ki-moon states, according to Reuters.

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